Hi, all -
Since Dave called me out, here is my take on Red-breasted Sapsuckers in Lincoln
County.
I mostly see them in winter. I do not do as much summer birding inland in the
county as I could, and rarely encounter them. On the coast they are present in
winter but generally hard to find in native habitats. Most of the places I find
them they are drilling on exotic trees, and there are not that many apple trees
in this county. I used to have an exotic (Japanese?) maple in my front yard,
and some winters it had a resident sapsucker.
Most of the time I would not be much use to a visitor wanting to find one in
the county.
Wayne
From: "David Irons" <llsdirons@xxxxxxx>
To: "obol" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2015 11:33:18 PM
Subject: [obol] Status of Red-Breasted Sapsucker in Lincoln County?
Greetings All,
In a post earlier today, Darrel Faxon was cited as saying that Red-breasted
Sapsucker is "a good bird in Lincoln County." This comment caught my attention,
as I think of Red-breasted Sapsucker as being a common to uncommon species
almost anywhere in northwest Oregon (west of the crest of the Cascades), with
perhaps more modest numbers on the coastal slope of the Coast Range and outer
coast and greatest densities in the lower foothills of the west slope of the
Cascades and the east slope of the Coast Range.
Typically, eBird provides a pretty good resource when such questions arise, so
I checked the map of sightings for Red-breasted Sapsucker in nw. Oregon. Around
the areas of greatest population and the highest densities of active eBirders,
the pin drops for Red-breasted Sapsucker sightings are quite dense. The total
number of pin drops was considerably less dense along the outer coast and on
the western slope of the Coast Range, perhaps by as much as an order of
magnitude. That said, there are still a lot of eBird reports of this species in
Lincoln County. I counted about 45 pin-dropped sites with Red-breasted
Sapsucker reports, with many sightings over time listed for some locales (i.e.
Janet Lamberson's yard).
Next I looked at the reporting observers listed for those sightings. Aside from
Janet's long roster of yard sightings, many of the Lincoln County reports of
this species have come from folks who live outside the county. This raised
another question. How many of the most active Lincoln County birders are active
eBirders? The answer....not many. Of the top 15 all-time eBirders for Lincoln
County (based on number of species seen in the county), only two live in the
county–Janet Lamberson at #3 and Dawn Villaescusa at #12. Then I looked at the
standings based on the number of checklists submitted, which is a better
indicator of overall observer effort. Janet and Dawn are #1 and #2
respectively, but the next eight spots are held down by non-residents,
including Greg Gillson at #3. Greg doesn't even live in Oregon anymore and to
my knowledge has only been back in Lincoln County once (for a pelagic trip)
since he and Marlene moved to southern California a couple of years ago.
Please understand that I am not making any value judgment here towards those
who opt not to record sightings into the eBird database. However, in this case
I think who is reporting to eBird in Lincoln County to some extent skews the
picture that the eBird distribution map shows for Red-breasted Sapsucker in the
county. If you consider that we out-of-town birders (who account for probably
devote most of our birding time to seawatches, shorebirding, and hitting
coastal vagrant traps rather than birding heavily-wooded inland areas inhabited
by Red-breasted Sapsuckers, maybe it's not that surprising that eBird reports
of this species are comparatively few.
Off the top of my head, I would add the following names (in no particular
order) to those of Janet, Dawn, and Darrel as the most active resident Lincoln
County birders (I'm surely overlooking someone):
Wayne Hoffman
Range Bayer
Phil Pickering
Deb Holland
Chuck Philo
Roy Lowe
I would be curious as to how some of these folks would characterize the status
of Red-breasted Sapsucker in Lincoln County. Perhaps this is no more than a
difference in what Darrel and I would call a "good bird" (a vague and
subjective notion at best). If a species is known to be resident and a breeder
in the county, I would call it expected, uncommon, or perhaps locally uncommon
even if that species might be missed during several visits to appropriate
habitat. In my view, a "good bird" is one that even a resident birder would get
excited about finding...a species that one might expect to encounter only once
or twice every few years of active birding.
Dave Irons
Portland, OR
